Where Spiders Fear to Spin tells the tale of former soap opera star Sadie Mills, a woman literally haunted by her past whose final days are filled with horror. Her daughter resents taking care of her, her former lovers are dying off one by one, and her dead husband’s vengeful ghost has returned from the dead to drag her to hell.

We’ll be celebrating the release of the book at Anthocon in Portsmouth, New Hampshire (www.anthocon.com), June 5–7, 2015. Both Dudar and Goodell will be available on Saturday, June 6, at the Books & Boos’ tables to sign copies of the novella.

The book is available in paperback or e-book wherever books are sold. Visit one of these links to buy your copy today!

Author Stacey Longo, who has had two books published this year by two different publishers, will be discussing one of them this coming Wednesday, June 3, at the Douglas Library in Hebron, Connecticut. She will be reading and discussing Ordinary Boy, which was published by Dark Alley Press, an imprint of Vagabondage Press, in March. The event runs from 6:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. The library is located at 22 Main St.

My Mom Has MS, is the second book Longo had published this year. It was published by Books and Boos Press. The book was inspired by Longo’s friend, Renee Holder’s child, Patrick, who has been asking friends to donate to the MS Society for his birthday instead of buying him birthday presents. He’s been doing this since 2008, when Renee was diagnosed with the disease.

My Mom Has MS, which is geared towards children, was written and illustrated by Longo.

Convention

Her newest books and her short story collection, Secret Things, will be available at the Books & Boos table at AnthoCon this coming weekend. There will be a number of anthologies she has had stories published in, including Insanity Tales, available at the table as well. Longo will be available at the table throughout the weekend.

Bookstore Event

On Saturday, June 27, Longo will be reading from Ordinary Boy at the Book Club in Broad Brook, CT. The event runs from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. The bookstore is located at 100 Main Street.

by Jason Harris

David Price is the author of Dead in the USA. He resides in Massachusetts. His new story, “Necrophone,” appeared in the online sci-fi & fantasy magazine, Buzzy Mag, today.

JH: How did your adventure in writing come about?

DP: Well, I’ve always loved reading. I was a huge comic book fan, and later moved on to Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien, Brian Lumley and many other speculative fiction writers. In my freshman year of college, I absolutely aced Composition 1. I was undeclared, and my professor suggested I become an English Major. That’s really when I first started thinking seriously about becoming a writer.

JH: What was your first published work?

DP: I had a short story based on the haunted experiences in my life published in a collection called Tales from the Grave.

JH: Do you have a specific writing style?

DP: The most frequent comment or compliment to my writing is that it’s “page-turning.” I’ve also been told that I do particularly well with dialogue. I don’t tend to bog down on details or describe a scene for very long. If you like extensive, detailed descriptions, I’m probably not for you. If you like stuff that moves along, I might be your guy.

JH: What year were you published?

DP: 2012 was the first time I saw myself in print, other than an online article or two.

JH: Have any real life instances influenced your work?

DP: Oh sure, I’ve put many of my real life experiences in my work. In my story “Necrophone,” coming out in Buzzy Mag in March, I mention cliff jumping at a quarry. That really happened. Actually quite a bit of that story is based on my relationship with my grandfather, as I wrote it shortly after he died.

JH: What books have influenced your life the most?

DP: Hmm, my life or my writing? The Stand is my favorite book, so it’s certainly influenced me. The works of Stephen King have changed the way I see the world, at times. Some of the ideas in the Dark Tower series will always influence me, I think. And then of course, there’s J.R.R. Tolkien. The fact that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are the main influence for the Dungeons & Dragons game is important. D & D is the inspiration for the series of epic fantasy books I am currently writing.

JH: Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

DP: Stephen King, hands down. Even when his stories don’t quite hit the mark, he has the way of always getting me to care about his characters. I don’t think I write much like Stephen King myself, but I am always conscious of trying to get the reader to care about my characters.

JH: Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

DP: Well, J.K. Rowling isn’t that new, but I consider the Harry Potter series pretty much revolutionary. I’m a big fan of John McIlveen, having recently read his collection, Jerks. Bracken MacLeod is an up and coming writer, as anyone who is paying attention to the horror and crime markets will tell you. Kealan Patrick Burke writes so beautifully, that I doubt I’ll ever equal his style.

JH: Can you share a little of your current work with us?

DP: As I said, “Necrophone” is a short story that will be published online in Buzzy Mag on March 27. It’s about a man who discovers a phone app that allows him to communicate with the dead, in this case, his recently deceased grandfather. Other than that, I’m putting some more polish on the first book of my epic Lovecraftian fantasy series: Lightbringer.

JH: What was the last book or piece of work that you had published? What was it about?

DP: Last year I had my essay “Shark Bait” published in the collection, Phobias, from Hidden Thoughts Press.

JH: Do you have a ritual before you write?

DP: Not really. I’ve used music at times, usually Tool or Puscifer. Sometimes I drink coffee, sometimes wine.

JH: Do you have any advice for other writers?

DP: If you don’t have the stomach for rejection, this might not be the business or hobby for you. I wasn’t ready for all the rejection, to be honest. I mean, I knew it was part of the business, but I didn’t realize how hard it would be to handle at times. That story, “Necrophone” that I’ve mentioned already? That was rejected more than ten times. I finally sold it to Buzzy Mag, making it the best paying story I’ve sold to date. You just never know. Stick with it and try not to take it personally. Just keep writing, keep improving, and keep submitting.

By Jason Harris

It’s February and the third annual Queen City Kamikaze is upon us once again. It’s one bright spot during this cold and snowy month. The one difference this year is that this anime, video game, comic book, cosplay, sci-fi, and fantasy convention takes place on a Sunday. For the past two years, it happened on Saturday.

Mark Wholley, one of the Four Horsemen who founded Anthocon, Northern New England’s only multi-genre literature and arts convention, will be at QCK for his second time to promote Anthocon. He will also be selling copies of Anthology, an anthology that debuted at Anthocon. He wants to make some vendor contacts and meet some artists, Wholley said.

“I like the show because of it diverse audience it draws in, It’s local to me and I like to support other shows when I can. I enjoyed last year so I decided to attend again this year,” Wholley said.

At the Books & Boos‘ tables, there will be six authors: Stacey Longo, Dale T. Phillips, Vlad Vaslyn, Tony Tremblay, David Price, and Gordon Bean. They are all members of the New England Horror Writers organization. These authors will be selling and signing their books. This will be Longo’s third time and Tremblay’s and Price’s second time attending the convention.

“I love this convention and meeting a younger generation of readers,” Longo said.

Along with selling new and used books, Books & Boos will be presenting two panels: Horror in the Movies (1 p.m. to 2 p.m.) and Where Authors Get Their Ideas (4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.).

Horror In The Movies: authors Gordon Bean (Dawn of Broken Glass), David Price (Dead in the USA), Stacey Longo (Secret Things), and moderator Jason Harris will discuss the best and worst, darkest and most disturbing, scariest and silliest examples of horror on the big screen on the Horror in the Movies panel. From the golden age of Nosferatu to the modern-day Conjuring, this panel will cover it all. Questions from the audience are encouraged throughout the discussion.

Where Do Writers Get Their Ideas? Authors Dale Phillips (Shadow of the Wendigo), Vlad Vaslyn (Brachman’s Underworld), David Price (Dead in the USA), and moderator Stacey Longo (Secret Things) will answer the number one question writers hear from their readers: How do you come up with this stuff? From disturbing first dates to summer camp adventures gone awry, audiences will learn how the most innocent of memories and experiences can be turned into scary stories and best sellers. Questions from the audience will be encouraged throughout the discussion.

There is a third panel: How to Create, Publish, and Promote Your Own Comic, which will happen during the convention, but isn’t sponsored by Books and Boos.

The Queen City Kamikaze takes place at 1 Crusader Way in Manchester, New Hampshire from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 16. There is a $10 admission price.

Editor’s Note:
Author David Price won’t be able to attend the convention. A family issue came up.

by Jason Harris

The third Anthocon has come to an end. All we have left are good memories and pictures until next year’s convention. Anthocon is organized by the Four Horsemen ( Timothy Deal, Mark Wholley, ZjOhnny Morse, and Danny Evarts). It’s an excellent convention where there are panels, author readings and vendors selling everything from books, t-shirts, wooden bookmarks and even lemon curd.

By Jason Harris

Author Joe Knetter started writing ten years ago after being a lifelong horror fan. His start came when he was online and found a publisher who was looking for stories.

“I thought it would be fun to give it a shot, so I wrote four and sent them in.”

All four of his stories were accepted, he said. Since then, he has written many more stories with interesting titles. His favorite title is “For the Love of Orson Welles’ Fat Black Ejaculate,” which can be found in his collection, Vile Beauty.

“It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever,” Knetter said about the title. “I was stoned one night. I just randomly said that. I can’t remember what about.”

He ended up writing that story for a gross-out contest. After submitting it and people started reading it, the contest organizers changed the rules so that his story was excluded, Knetter said.

“Vile Beauty is really nasty. It’s more for shock value and over-the-top stuff. The other stuff is a little more mellow. Zombie Bukkake is obviously pretty out there.”

There are times Knetter will come up with the title first, then work the story around it.

He has a new story, “Crack in the Sarcophagus,” appearing in Canopic Jars: Tales of Mummies and Mummification, which debuts this month at Anthocon.

“I think it’s going to be a fun book.”

He loves attending horror conventions, and attends quite a few. When he first started out, he would attend up to 14 a year. This year he has only been to three, including Rock & Shock.

“Being that there are so many shows across the country, it kind of gets oversaturated a little bit.”

At his first convention, his goal was to sell one book. At one of the many conventions he has attended since that first one, he met his girlfriend of four years, Sarah French.

“The goal is always to make money, but it’s just as important for me to network,” Knetter said about conventions. “The shows are fun. It’s great to meet people.”

He did have a fan come to a show once whom he later found out was disturbed. This fan later arrested for putting bombs in vibrators, which is what Knetter used in one of his stories, he said. The fan was caught before anyone got hurt. He would have felt bad if someone had gotten hurt, but realized that if the fan didn’t react to something he wrote, he would have reacted to someone else’s work.

“Lucky enough, he was stupid enough not to do it right. Thank god. Horror fans are good people generally. They’re not troublemakers.”

He did have another fan buy one of his books that was poorly edited early on in his career. This fan highlighted his mistakes in the book then brought it back and gave it to him, Knetter said. “That was pretty comical, actually.”

Inspiration strikes Knetter everywhere. He has used an old mental hospital his mother worked at as a setting in a few stories. He has also written about a haunted hotel his girlfriend lived in while growing up. His story, “Room 17,” describes what happened at that hotel.

“I had to change the name of the hotel by one letter. Legally, I’m good to go now.”

He has been inspired by the early work of Clive Barker and is a huge Stephen King fan. His work has been compared to Wrath James White and Edward Lee.

His advice to writers is to just write, but don’t expect to make money, because writers don’t make much.

“Write because you have to tell the story and hope that you get lucky enough that it finds someone who likes it. You have to keep writing.”

Author Stacey Longo was at the Bozrah Farmer’s Market recently for Connecticut Author’s Night. She was one of 18 authors at the event.

Longo has a collection of 12 stories, Secret Things, coming out in October. She is also editing Wicked Seasons,which is the New England Horror Writers’ second anthology. It will debut at this year’s Anthocon in November. You can see the TOC here and the front and back covers here.